Present Imperfect Episode 3: Camila Teixeira on the right to peaceful protest

UNICEF Innocenti presents Present Imperfect, a podcast series exploring the evolution of child rights over the past three decades - and the decades to come, 35 years after the approval of the Convention on the Rights of the Child or CRC by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. Protesting peacefully is a human right under article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 15 of the UN Convention on the rights of the child confirms the right to freedom of peaceful assembly for all children interconnected with Article 12 the right to be heard, and Article 13 the right to freedom of expression and association. In Episode 3 of the Present Imperfect podcast series Dr. Camila Teixeira, a social movements and child rights expert with more than 20 years of experience with the United Nations development agencies and other international organizations, talks about children's civil and political rights with a focus on the right to peaceful assembly. , In her report titled Youth Protest and the crisis, Camila discusses the role that young people are playing in this latest wave of protests in the context of a polycrisis affecting the world, including the climate crisis, the cost-of-living crisis, conflict and this backlash against democracy, as well as the innovation and creativity they injected into peaceful protests through the use of technology and social media. Camila talks about the disillusionment of young people towards democracy, as well as lowering the voting age to 16 or 17 as a mean of expanding engagement in politics and faith in democracy. Overall, young people are legitimate political actors who must be supported in expressing their views and organizing nonviolent assemblies, including when they express political views, which we may not agree with. Reports and resources mentioned in this episode: • Youth, Protests and the Polycrisis report https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/youth-protests-and-polycrisis • Explainer – Should Children Vote? Understanding the debate https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/should-children-vote • Free and safe to protest – report on policing assemblies involving children https://www.unicef.org/reports/free-and-safe-protest • Podcast with UNICEF Youth Foresight Fellows Nahjae Nunes and Abril Perazzini on Democracy and Youth - https://soundcloud.com/unicef-innocenti/democracy-and-youth   This episode was recorded on 5th July 2024. For a full transcript of this episode, please visit this link: https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/present-imperfect